(Last of 2 parts)
Q: What significant differences are there between the Principles and Policies of the 1987 Constitution and that of the ConCom’s draft?
A: Among these is the commitment to federalism coupled with national unity and territorial integrity. Federalism, therefore, cannot be pretext or prelude to any form of secession or dismemberment of the Republic.
Q: Why was there a necessity to change the phraseology in respect to the role of the military?
A: In the past, “protector of the people” was used by adventurist elements in the military as the legitimation of coup and destabilization attempts, purportedly “for the protection of the people.”
In the ConCom draft, the military is more aptly assigned the task of securing the sovereignty of the Republic, while the government is tasked with protecting the people and the Federal Republic.
Q: Does the draft return ROTC?
A: Not necessarily, but what it does provide is that the government may call upon the citizens to render personal military service.
There is no compulsory draft nor are students compelled, as in other countries, to render military service as a curricular matter, but the government reserves the right to call on the citizens to render personal military service, but only by federal law.
Q: Why was it necessary to include “benevolent neutrality” to characterize relations between Church and State?
A: In other jurisdictions, the separation between Church and State has been construed to establish a “wall of separation.”
That is not in accordance with Filipino national life for whom religion has a privileged part. So while there is no state religion, the State will accommodate religion, without discrimination towards any—not even towards unbelief or skepticism—if such accommodation does not violate public policy.
This is the reason that laws cannot be passed forbidding the public display of religious symbols or the performance of religious rites in connection with public and official activities.
Q: What does the ConCom understand by “self-determination”?
A: Although the concept, if undoubtedly complicated, has undergone a remarkable history, self-determination principally means the right and the capacity of the Philippines to plot its own course and to set its own future.
It is not an entitlement to any of the component units of the federal union to secede in the name of self-determination.
Q: Does the section of weapons of mass destruction exclude their presence completely from the Philippines?
A: Not so. The ConCom’s understanding of the dependent clause “consistent with national interest” is that when national interests require the presence or the maintenance of weapons of mass destruction, the Philippines should be free to take the steps necessary in its national interest, although the clear preference would be to do without them.
Q: What does the guarantee of the “right of all citizens to participate in all government processes” refer to?
A: It was the persuasion of the ConCom that the right of persons to vote and to be voted for, among others, should be guaranteed.
Insofar as the Constitution grants the citizens the right to legislate, even to amend and to revise the Constitution through an initiative, participation in these processes is likewise constitutionally guaranteed. In other words, the participation of the citizen is not only by the gracious concession of government officials. It is a constitutionally guaranteed right.